Ukraine and russia, whats going on there, that would be a huge problem. The president is also dealing with another enormous problem, namely what isis, the terrorist group is doing in syria and iraq. It seems that so many parts of the world right now are on fire and the president has got a lot on his agenda. He sure does, and nato, when he arrives there this week, hes going to be talking about isis, trying to round up a coalition of nato countries and then having his secretary of defense and secretary of state go on to the middle east to round up more arab nations to put together this coalition, but its a little unclear, he left a little ambiguous what the goal is here today. He said we should defeat isis. Later, he sort of had a softer approach, it sounded more like containment. Let me go back to the critical issue of today. I agree with you wolf and bill richardson, the president delivered a strong powerful message to the baltics. He gave them exactly the reassurances they needed to hear. I respectfully disagree that he sent a tough message to Vladimir Putin. He had tough words, but actions, not so tough. On the issue of arming the kranians, he was purposely ambiguous. He had nothing about strengthening sanctions, nothing about pull out world cup games with the russians, other symbolic kind of actions one might have expected. There was nothing in here when it came to defending nations that are far away from ukraine and our nato allies, he was stout, but when it came to defending a nation that is under direct attack by the russians, he was murky. What does it say to you that the president of the United States needs to go to estonia and deliver this kind of message, saying dont worry, we believe in our article 5 of the nato charter, that if one nato alie is attack, all of the other nato allies will come to their defense. They are very nervous that may not necessarily be the case. He we want there to try to hold their hands and reassure them, but the fact that he needed to do that, speaks volumes, i suspect, about whats going on, especially in east central and eastern europe, among some of those nato allies. You are absolutely right. They have been rattled by whats been happening in ukraine, and by putins obvious more aggressive stance toward the west in general and i think he did exactly the right thing by going to estonia. I praise him for doing that in the baltics. If you are going to estonia, it would be really good and a surprise if he went to kiev and ukraine. Hes not doing that, but he has invited president poroshenko to the white house, to the oval office, for a meeting in the coming days and presumably he will be reiterating what he said today. You want to make one final thought, david . No, i think now the action moves on to the end of the nato summit. What comes out of this meeting . Is the president going to lead the nato countries to make much stronger commitments to ukraine, to beef up their military spending . They are not meeting the standards that they have set. The 2 standard is a low bar for how much they can provide for defense and we just heard United States, we pay 3. 8 of our gdp into defense and we pay 75 of the costs of nato. 75 . We need our allies to step up here. Elise labbott is our Global Affairs correspondent. Once this nato summit ends, the secretary of state and defense are going to be heading to the middle east to try to reassure the middle eastern allies of the United States, sunni arabs in particular in fighting isis in iraq and syria. I know you are going to be traveling with the secretary of state. Walk us forward a little bit. Whats the latest on that front . Well, wolf, what the secretary is going to be trying to be doing is implement what the president has been saying over the last few days in terms of putting together a Regional Coalition to combat isis. Clearly, the administration has said that its in the stages of developing a strategy, but thats not just about the battlefield. Thats about drawing up the financing, working with other countries to see what they can do, and i think the president has the the secretary have the same issue that weve been talking about this morning about ukraine. I think the world is looking for the u. S. Leadership here and they dont see this type of strategy. This has been going on for months with isis and theres been a lot of criticism of this president that hes been discussing and very deliberate and trying to develop a strategy. Meanwhile, youve seen this lightning advance of isis through syria, iraq. Youve seen the beheadings of two americans and the criticism of this president even by his staunchest sporters like Dianne Feinstein of the Senate Intelligence committee is that the president is too careful, too cautious, so when the secretary of state goes out to talk about these countries what they can do, i think what the world is looking for is u. S. Leadership. Everyone is willing to get together and join some kind of coalition but there needs to be a country that is willing to lead that coalition and this whole idea that the u. S. Is leading from behind, i think the world kind of falls behind when they dont have the u. S. At the helm saying, okay, this is what were prepared to do. This is how you can help us beat back isis. Because, wolf, this group has no signs of stopping, and the question is is the u. S. Going to help eradicate isis . Is it going to stop it from becoming a threat to the homeland . I think if theres no concerted effort to beat this group back, you see this arc of instability that isis is looking to exacerbate from the levant and through north africa. Well see what the secretary of state and defense can do in term of forging an alliance in dealing with this threat of isis in syria and iraq. Threats lets bring in mark hurtling. To degrade and defeat isis, you need more than air power. I would like to join in on the discussion of the president s presentation. I think it was powerful. When i first heard he was going to estonia, i thought what a powerful move. During the period he mentioned in january of 1991 when estonia, latvia and lithuania join hands against russia, it was monumental in their history, georgia and moldovia have been attacked by russia. And the republics of other countries have been russian attacks as well as the recent cyber attack against estonia. I think his motive was set the condition for values discussion for the nato summit. Hes going to shift that nato summit from where its been the last several years, talking about the 2 Defense Budget and to lets take a global look at what nato can do as an organization to fight evil. That certainly could play a part against isis. When you turn the whole table around, you are probably going to see discussions on ukraine, isis, israel, on fighting extremists flow into europe. This is going to be an expanded conference like they have never seen before in nato. So when the president talks about strengthening the military capabilities, the defense structure of ukraine and then goes on, general hurtling, to talk about and ill read it precisely we must do more to help other nato partners, these are not allies, just partners, including georgia and monthly dove va, strengthen their defenses as well, when you hear the president of the United States strengthening the military capabilities of georgia, moldova, ukraine, we see the president aboarding the air force one, when you her that hear that, and you are Vladimir Putin, what goes on through your mind . Its not a nuanced statement. They been serving with isaf alongside their nato partners even though they are not a nato member. The same with moldova, they have contributed. Estonia, latvia and lithuania. It is a spoke in the eye thats going to elicit more discussions at the summit, i think mr. Obama wanted to lay down the marker at this 30minute speech and saying theres going to be a whole lot more talk about this and our values are such that we have to create order when isis, russia, and hamas creating chaos. We have been dealing with our nato and nonnato partners for many years and i think the nato conference is going to pull together actions not on the part of the military. The military can do the deployment. Ive seen that. In fact, theres an exercise going on right now with 16 nato and nonnato members, but he wants the politicians to realize they got to pull it together. General hurtling, stand by as well. I want to bring in gordan chang. Hes an expert on nuclear proliferation. He wrote an article for the daily beast on Vladimir Putin, go ahead and explain what you mean as far as a Nuclear Threat issued by the russians. On friday, Vladimir Putin talked about russia being a Strong Nuclear power and he used the term nuclear deterrence, he also talked about ukraine about a term that really means new russia. What hes saying is he is prepared to use his most destructive weapons. Putin talk about unveiling a new offensive nuclear weapon. So on friday what putin did he took Nuclear Weapons have been considered to be defensive in nature and he made them part of the appliances of aggression. This is going to be important because other countries in the region and countries around the world like china and russia, and north korea, are going to hear that and they are going to see whether putin gets away with his Nuclear Threats. Do you think this is going to escalate now this crisis . Well, i think it will escalate and one reason is in the 30minute speech which was i thought was terrific and pitch perfect, there was one line that putin will take away, when the president said there is no military solution in ukraine and i think there is a military solution and putin is actually implementing it and what hes going to take away from that line is that he has a green light to continue provocations against ukraine. I think this situation will escalate. Putin has some obvious goals that he wants to achieve and hes going to do and hes going to go and progress until hes stopped. Thanks very much. Thanks to all of our correspondents and analysts for our coverage, our special coverage around the president s address. Lets go back to Carol Costello. Newsroom with Carol Costello will continue right after a short break. And in addition to the measures weve already taken, the United States is working to bolster the security of our nato allies and further increase americas military presence in europe. It would mean more training and exercises between our militaries and it would mean more u. S. Forces, including american boots on the ground, continuously rotating through estonia and latvia and lithuania. Veggies youre cool. Reworking the menu. Mayo, corn dogs. You are so out of here ahh. The complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals. 9 grams of protein. With 30 less sugars than before. Ensure, your 1 dr. Recommended brand now introduces ensure active. Muscle health. Clear protein drink and high protein. Targeted nutrition to feed your active life. Ensure. Take life in. Ugh. Heartburn. Did someone say burn . Try alka seltzer reliefchews. They work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. Mmm. Amazing. Yeah, i get that a lot. Alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Sfx sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, im walking down the street, sfx sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx sounds of marching band and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this parade honoring americas troops. Which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years. Aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. Right, but i dont look like that. Who can i write a letter to about this . Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Good morning to you. Im Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. President obama in europe, brushing aside diplomacy and vowing to destroy isis. Very early this morning the United States intelligence in confirming the horror, the videotaped beheading of journalist Stephen Sotloff is indeed authentic. The president scorned the terrorist group and its slaughter of a second american in two weeks. I want to say that today the prayers of the American People are with the family of a devoted journalist Stephen Sotloff. Overnight our government determined that tragically stephen was taken from us in a horrific act of violence. We cannot even begin to imagine the agony that everyone who loves stephen is feeling right now, especially his mother, his father, and his younger sister. So today our country grieves with them. Like jim foley before him, steves life stood in sharp contrast to those who murdered him so brutally. They make the absurd claim that they kill in the name of religion but it was stephen his friends say who deeply loved the islamic world. His killers try to claim that they defend the oppressed, but it was stephen who traveled across the middle east risking his life to tell the story of muslim men and women demanding justice and dignity. Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by killing innocent americans like stephen, they have already failed. They failed because like people around the World Americans are repulsed by their barbarism. We will not be intimidated. They only unite us and stiffen our resolve against these terrorists and those who make the mistakes of harming americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served. But how will justice be served and when . The president s vow now adds to the pressure of forming a strategy to confront isis and its war against the west. In the meantime, president obama approves more u. S. Forces deployed to krawk. About 350 more troops will be sent to iraq. Good morning, paul. Good morning, carol. Paul, what is isis really trying to do . They know these beheadings are not going to stop the air strikes against them in iraq . The very minimum in order to appease the bloodlust of their sport supporters around the world, if they did something bigger, that could invite a much bigger western response. That could jeopardize what they are trying to achieve which is to build this islamic state, carol. You are saying they are not going to launch an attack against the United States . I dont think they are. If the United States acts in syria and there are strikes thats their strongholds, their fighters are there, at that point they could train some of the thousand westerners that they have to come back to the west to launch attacks and also cause the people who are already in the west to launch attacks as well, carol. Im just reading this statement, we just got a statement from the secretary of state john kerry and hes talking about the murder of Stephen Sotloff and james foley. He says the u. S. Government has used every military, diplomatic and intelligence tool we have and we always will. Our special Operations Forces bravely reached out to save these lives. Isis is holding other western hostages. Are these efforts continuing . Of course they will be continuing but the prospects, unfortunately, for these hostages are very grim indeed. Its not like the United States is going to stop air strikes in iraq any time soon, so we may see more of these grisly beheadings. We may even see isis from isis. Isis has quite a lot of reach into jordan and lebanon and it could actually attack u. S. Interests there as well. Intelligence analysts have pored over every agonizing details of the beheading tapes. This is an upclose image and a freeze frame from the video released yesterday. Now look at the side by side comparison from both the sotloff killing and the execution of james foley. The similar eyes are just part of the reason why u. S. Officials believe the knife wielding man is the same man in both tapes. Reporter you may remember almost two weeks ago brit ans ambassador to the United States said britains Intelligence Services were close to identifying the blackclad jihadi in the execution video. In the latest video, the British Government believes the executioner is one and the same man. Im sure you know exactly who i am by now. Time ran out for american journalist Stephen Sotloff. An isis knife man warned he would be next to die in a propaganda video two weeks ago that showed the beheading of fellow reporter james foley. The life of this american citizen president obama depends on your next decision. They are analyzeding the images. Several clues, the two videos were shot several days apart. In the first, sotloff shaven headed. In tuesdays video he has stubbly hair and beard and the jihadi refers to bombing raids against amerli. It indicates that sotloff was executed in the last three days. Unmistakable similarities. Both videos, similar height and build. Same combat knife brandished in his left hand and that accent. A forensic linguist says the voice sounds the same probably from a multicultural neighborhood in london. In the first video on august 19th. An attempt by you, obama to deny the muslims their rights of living in safety in the islamic caliphate will result in the blood shed of your people. An excerpt from the second video released tuesday. You, obama, have yet again for your actions another american citizen suggested your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people. I ask you to please release my child. Words of hate that bear no comparison to a mothers love. Her last ditch plea to the kidnappers, testimony of a life cut short. Stephen is a loyal and generous son, brother, and grandson. We miss him very much. We want to see him home safe and sound and to